Thursday, February 26, 2009

Love Is The Shit

Love will get you through.

Love is all you need.

What song is that? Anyways -Chino and I really are going to be together forever and I have the proof. You guys already know that we endured our first 2 years of marrige in secret, (after having only known each other 2 months) that we endured a deportation scare, a year living in fear that it might happen at any moment and then actuall deportation, but not untill he spent a month and a half in immigration jail. We made it through the scare of him being dropped off at the border of a country he knew barely nothing about, just that it says he was born there on his birth cirtificate, and stayed strong through the next 6 months while he started making a life for himself and I stayed in Michigan to finish my job. Talk about a long story short but here I am, I have been living in Mexico for 2 and a half months now. (two and a half when I wrot this it's been over 3 now but I'm just starting to post) Who would have thunk it, a hillbilly in Mexico.

Anyhow, evidence. The stuff above is enough to test anybody's relationship but we were just getting geared up. It wasn't even Mexico that was the first biggest probelm, it was Texas. I came from a really decent paying job that I LOVED with people that I loved in Mi and although I knew it would be impossible to replace the people I at least thought I would have no trouble getting another good job, hell a better job, with my updated resume. Ha. And let the games begin. It turns out that in a border town in Tx you sort of need to be billingual. You can't get a job in a gas station without speaking Spanish and here I am with my 100 word vocabulary. Shit. It took me a month and a half of crossing the border 5 days a week, (nearly) and putting in applications and resumes 5 days a week (nearly) and slowly depleating our precious savings in that time all while getting more desperate and feeling more like a degenerate as each day passed. I don't know how some people can go 6 months without finding a job, SOMETHING, without going insane. It's hard now to put to words how I felt and how desperate I was at the end after being turned down after so many interviews. I'm kind of glad for that.

Thankfully though I found a job at a collections agency. Collections. Omg. And you've actually got to believe me when I say I was and AM thankfull to be working a job I hate for HALF the money I was making before. I am real damn thankful because we can EAT. I hate people yelling at me every day (all day) the annoyance and hate in their voices, or the people that cry or speak in fear or in the tone that says they have given up. Our calles are monitored and critiqued by our bosses and we're constantly being yelled at to pump people that are yelling or crying for MORE information. "I'm sorry your husband died, could you verify your SSN #??"

They told all of us trainees (we started on Dec 8th) that our first paycheck would be on Dec. 26th. You want to deflate a room of desperate but hopeful people quick, you tell them that there will be no cash for Christmas. I was pretty bummed that Chino and I wouldn't be able to exchange but a lot more so that I wouldn't be able to do anything for my family that is so far away. I thought maybe we could do a little something but then the next shoe dropped - my debit card was stolen and my bank account was drained and overdrawn. Ouch. Luckily we had some emergency cash in the house and Chino was working and I was going to get paid 2 days before rent was due. We were fine for food and gas till I was paid so we were fine, just no Christmas.

Chino's job then told him that they were going to lay him off for a few weeks and we got a little more worried because the car was also starting to make some funky noises. Chino ended up taking apart the brakes and looking at them to see what was up but they looked fine so we didn't know what was going on but that I had to show up to work 7 days a week or be fired. \(HA and after he put them back together they made TWICE as many funny noises!! :) )

Our dog got sick around this time and we actually had to take her to a mexican vet which I swore I wouldn't do but we thought one night that she wouldn't make it till the next day so we took her. Vets here are backward and 20 years behind and the doctor sent us home after asking a few questions with some vials and NEEDLES for us to give her shots. Uhh..... shots. Right. He asked my husband "Can she give her shots?" As in ME giving my teeny sweet dog SHOTS. Chino asked me and I just stuttered yes because I didn't want my dog to die but holy hell I don't know how to DO that! He showed me (why it was me and not my husband I don't understand, it's the way it went) and sent us on our way. The first day wasn't so bad because she was too busted to notice but the folowing days when she started to feel better were terrible. We had to give her 2 shots in the morning and one at night. My poor little dog of course couldn't understand why we would hold her down so she just screamed and looked at me like a killer. After a few days when she was fine and we had a week of shots left I couldn't take it anymore and told Chino that she was either cured or would die because I wasn't giving her one more shot. (I would have taken her state side before I let her die but I was feeling dramatic.)

Did I mention that we hadn't been able to afford a hot water heater yet? It was first on our list when I got a job because as winter progressed the naturally warm water from the ground started turning colder and colder and we could no longer take showers. We've been heating water on the stove in a big pot, pouring it in a bucked with colder water and doing the dump-over-your-head bucked wash every night. It's not so bad.

The week after the dog got sick a crazy open isane WOUND just showed up on here shoulder and we thought she had flesh eating disease for a couple of days. Lol for that one it turnes out she just got a bad burn and she came out of it just fine but there's no hair on her shoulder any more - she's our ghetto mexican fo-sho now :)It seems like in the midst of all of this there were 20 other smaller crisises (to us at least) but I can't bring them up right now in my head, maybe it was just all the stress of EVERYTHING snowballing and making it seem unending, I don't know. But through it all Chino and I were together like peas in a pod in a hurricane (mushy much??). We're still crazy about each other, we have more stress fights now, like those little spats that come out of nowhere for no reason? Yes those but at least we are able to see them for what they are afterwards (hell during but I have to be RIGHT so we finish damn it :) ) I have a ton and a half more to say, the worst is yet to come but so is the best, I hope you all are still out there, I am and I miss you. :)

16 comments:

Hi !!!!!!! OH !! I'm so glad you stopped in after all this time !! :) :) :)

And thank you :) and I can't wait to be on more (every day 3 times a day!) to write more, thank goodness now at least I have a way at work to post what I write at home. (and sneak in some comments here and there on lunch if I get one :P) I'm so happy to see your name here :)

Of course I am here after all this time - I subscribed to your RSS feed, and every now and then I look at it wistfully, and wonder how you are doing. And hope everything is okay, and send you little happy vibes.

I'm glad you are back. I can't wait to read more. I want to hear every tiny detail!

Dang girl, the Mexican drama!! I know you don't know me but I have been following your blog and had been wondering how things were going in good ol' mexico. Glad you found a job and hopefully things will be on the upswing!

Hi Kristi! :) I think?? You commented once before and I remember (ok so it could be another kristi but I remember one at least) you. I don't like to forget any of the people that come here. Anywho, thank you for dropping a line and YES !! An upswing !!!!! :) :)

I worked in a call center for 5 years and it can be very stressful. The one thing that got me through was sitting in my car in the parking lot at work just before signing in for the day and repeating positive affirmations to myself and a whole lot of prayer. You would be amazed at how much this helps you face the coming screams and tears of the people you have to speak with. I'm sorry you've had to struggle so much but I'm glad that you see how lucky you are to be blessed to have each other to struggle with. Love is a power that can get you through anything. Always remember to cling to each other and you will always make it through. God bless girl. Continue to follow love and you'll always be blessed.

I'm facing the same situtation and would love to ask you more about your situation (not on a blog). I'm likely going to have to move to mexico this summer, and am relieved to hear that you're managing. Would love to hear more and chat. My yahoo messenger name is losmedranos or email, losmedranos@yahoo.com. (EVERYONE ELSE...PLEASE DON'T SEND ME A BUNCH OF CRAP!)

Lordy, it's been ages and ages since I checked to see if you'd posted and I got all welled up to see this one then I realised you've done gone again and this post is months and months old. I hope things have settled down, I hope it's all working, I hope you're well... lots of hopes. xxx

Gringa Lindy

WELCOME

Picture it, Sicily 19.... well no. How about Michigan, where I was born, raised up a dorky, country chick and met my husband about 7 years ago. He was deported about a year and a half after we were married so I packed up our stuff, my dog, and moved on down here to Mexico to live a crazy Mexican life. We've got great taco's but also cockroaches the size of my fist, so... it sort of evens out. :D